Sunday, April 28, 2013

Family Man by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton

Grade: A

Hotness Level: Inferno

Kink Level: No Kink

Genre: Contemporary, m/m

Reviewed by Anne

Vince is a 3 times married and 3 times divorced man who is just finally admitting to himself that he might be gay. Trey is a 25 year old student working 2 jobs to support his mother and grandmother. He knows he is gay, but he's been way too busy for a relationship. When Vince decides to try going to a gay night club and see if that helps with his confusion, he's shocked to see Trey, an acquaintance from his neighborhood there.

What a sweet and hot story! Painfully real at times. Just pretty darn awesome. There is so much going on in this book to love. I'll make you a list:

Vince's journey from realizing he might just possibly be gay to finding himself in a relationship with a man and considering coming out to his family is heart wrenching in a very good way. I can only guess what that kind of emotional journey is like, but I imagine it just like Cullinan and Sexton wrote it.

Vince's sister is awesome, both in her teasing of Vince and in her support of him. She was a wonderful person to read about.

Trey has a journey, too, and it's a bittersweet one. His life experiences with his alcoholic mother make it believable that the age difference between him and Vince just is not a big deal.

I felt like this could have been a true story. All the details felt right to me. The character that had a seizure and the descriptions of it, the scenes in the hospital? I've been there, done that, and reading this made me want to compare notes with the authors because they really got it right.

I enjoyed Vince and Trey's families, especially Vince's mother and Trey's grandmother. They were strong women who had raised strong men, and I liked seeing their relationships.

The relationship between Vince and Trey had such sexual tension! At the same time it was really sweet. They gave each other room to figure things out. Neither pushing the other to move faster than they were comfortable with, but at the same time clearly enjoying their time together.

Vinnie and Trey dance together. And it's hot.

The part where Vince's sister has to help him dress for a not-a-date with Trey. So funny and sweet.

Rachel ended up putting him in a pair of suit pants but with a dark plum-colored shirt with iridescent silver pinstripes she dug out of the back of his closet. He tried to shoot it down, because it had always felt too flashy to him, but Rachel insisted.

"You're gay now, big brother. You can be a little flashy."

"I amnot gay."

"Right. You're just making yourself a nervous wreck over a night out with a man. Completely different story."

The story grabs you from the first line. Seriously. I bought this book because I read the excerpt on All Romance ebooks. Here. Go check it out. I read it and I bought the book, that simple. (I checked it out because it was Smart Bitch Sarah's book club pick of the month for April, so props to her, too.)

Probably the only thing about this story that made me pause was how it switched point of view back and forth from Vince to Trey. I enjoy it when a story switches back and forth, but in this case Vince's POV is told in third person, and Trey's in first person. On one hand that made it really easy to tell whose POV we were in, on the other hand, it took me a while to get used to it. By the end of the book I didn't really notice at all, though, so it's pretty much a non-issue for me.

I loved this book so much. I want to go back and re-read it right now! I highly recommend it. It's going on my best of 2013 list, and I'll be looking for more by these authors!

About Us

Hotness Levels

None-No kissing, touching or sexSpark-KissingEmber-Kissing and touching, but any sex but is off page or very vague in descriptionBlaze-On page sex with more than a little descriptionInferno- Explicit sex with no holds barred descriptions

Kink Levels

No Kink-Nothing beyond simple sexMild Kink-Anal sex, spanking(hand), sex where you might be caught, menage with no other kinkModerate Kink – restraints, spanking with objects (flogger, etc), sex when you know someone is watchingHigh kink- anything involving a “dungeon” or a BDSM club, more extreme BDSM practices that require tools or special props